Stealing Time (22 page)

“But will he admit to it?” I asked.

“This is ridiculous!” Leo exploded.

Abasi nodded and the female Ancients—even Kore—looked repulsed by Philippe’s performance. I was disturbed to see, however, that he had Amenenhep’s rapt attention.

Philippe crowed, “Yes, the Church’s slayers know. Oh yes, most definitely, you betcha, fersher, by golly,
and how,
do they blame us!” He howled in delight as he purposely stuttered, “They are, in fact, f-f-f-fucking
pissed!
”

Abasi studied him with sharp eyes. “How can you know any of this?”

Philippe turned to him, a huge grin on his face. “I’ll get to that in good time, Old Impatient One. In
my
time. Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes! The slayers took great exception to getting their man back in pieces. Very small pieces. Except for a great quantity of blood…and his heart and his pretty little slayer’s mark. These were given to your lieutenant, Elder Leopold. Along with Kain’s head. Wouldn’t want to forget the do-gooder diplomat.”

James broadcast his battle-rage so strongly, it felt like the ice pick had morphed into an electric drill. A really big one. “Love, you’ve got to calm down,” I whispered, rubbing my temples.

He nodded and took a deep breath. “I will try.”

Leo had heard enough. “Explain yourself!”

Philippe put his hands on his hips. In a sing-song voice, he said, “None of you have the least amount of patience. I mean, really. Do you read the last page in a book first, so you know the ending before you’ve even begun?”

It felt like we’d stepped into some bizarre
Alice in Wonderland
scene, but there was nothing whimsical or amusing about this craziness.

“Problem Number Three—what will the Church do now?” Philippe’s voice fell to a whisper, still carrying across the clearing. “
Are we at war?
”

Leo snarled, but Abasi signaled silence.

Philippe, seeing this, bowed low with the middle fingers of both hands extended up behind his back. At the crude insult, Abasi’s giant companions would have attacked but for his sharp command.

Straightening, Philippe flashed a fang-filled smile. “I must give Leo and Abasi credit, my friends. Truly.” He looked around the clearing, his eyes wide and insincere. “Their plan was a good one. Send a fine, upstanding delegate to the Church’s leaders. Get their oath of innocence, their promise that the numbers swelling the slayers’ ranks are harmless. That the additional training camps are benign. I’ve no doubt that it would have worked. It would have worked very well…at least, for a time.”

The gathered vampires were utterly still, as only immortals could be.

Philippe turned in a full circle, eyeing his rapt audience. “We would have had peace for just as long as it took the mortals to build their numbers sufficiently to come after us in force, as they’ve never done before.”

The Elders stirred and Leo looked like he would’ve spoken, but for Amenenhep’s gesture for silence. Abasi went rigid at the interference and the other Ancients edged subtly away from the Egyptian.

Philippe was livid. “You pathetic people and your pathetic pieties, your ridiculous plans. Do you not understand that this peace the Church spouts is a lie? They speak of the treaty and our abiding coexistence, even as they increase their slayers’ numbers and develop better weapons to kill us!”

He leaped down from the boulder, landing lightly. Addressing Abasi, he sneered, “I’m a hero, Ancient. By stirring up the hornet’s nest before it’s fully built, I have ensured that
when
they come after us, it will be at a time of
our choosing
.”

Abasi’s face darkened with fury, while Leo looked downright apoplectic as he growled, “
You
killed the slayer!”

James’s arm tightened painfully around my waist. Truly, there were occasions when it sucked to be right.

“Oh yes, indeed I did! But I cannot take all the credit. It was Nathaniel who packed him up for me.” He waved to the vile male. “Wouldn’t the postman have freaked if he’d known about all the little pieces in those neatly packed bundles! Oh and don’t forget poor Kain—I killed him too.” He chortled. “Life has its little bonuses.”

Leo cursed, his fangs bared.

“You violated the treaty and made a mockery of this Gathering.” Abasi’s voice sounded lethal.

Philippe laughed scornfully. “You have all these rules, precepts, dictae and over-arching no-nos. The pathetic thing is—” His words choked off as he howled with laughter. “The thing is…” He made a show of fanning himself with a hand. “Oh! I crack me up sometimes. The pathetic thing is that you think that shit
means
something. And you’re stupid enough to think any of it will
save
you!”

The throng of vampires milled around, unsure what to do as everything fell apart. Here and there, a few slipped into the tree line and left the insanity behind.

Leo’s voice rang out, “You fool, the treaty and those rules you mock have saved countless lives on both sides for centuries!”

“Yet,” Amenenhep said, “Philippe’s points, if not his methods, are valid.”

Everyone froze—even Philippe—at the Egyptian’s voice.

Abasi rested his hand on Amenenhep’s shoulder and the gesture was oddly tender. “Yes, the slayers are increasing their numbers. Yes, they are improving their weapons. But until blood was shed, peace still had a chance. We might still have negotiated an agreement with the slayers. We might have avoided war.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Philippe asked, his voice dismissive.

James made a sound low in his throat, and his desolation and anguish echoed my own.

Philippe turned to address the gathered vampires. “I come to offer you liberation from the boredom of your eternal lives. Scurrying like roaches to shelter from light, you sicken me—as you should sicken yourselves! War is coming and I welcome it! Long have we hidden from the humans, ignoring our greater strength, our superior speed. We have allowed humans and their ridiculous sentimentality to rule us, to dictate how we should live—when we are dark gods and they are little more than cattle.
It is time they know their proper place!
It is time for us to take ours, even if I have to drive our hide-bound Ancients out of hiding and stake them myself!”

James’s breath exploded out of him and I stood frozen in shock.

Abasi roared, “Do you not see what you have done? You had no right to expose us!”

“I know exactly what I have done.” Philippe turned to Abasi, studying him as he would an insect. “As for my right? The world is there for whoever has the will to
take
it. That is my blood
right
, not what you would parcel out, with your ridiculous rituals and inane beliefs.”

Abasi’s eyes were hard. “You have brought death down on all of us…but at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that you will be the first to die.”

The two giant vampires moved forward, intent on Philippe.

“Not tonight, Abasi. Sorry to disappoint.” His peal of laughter shocked the bodyguards immobile, accustomed as they were to instilling terror. “My apologies, as well, that I must miss the rest of this evening’s entertainment. I believe you’ll find it to be rather…motivational.”

In a unified move, Philippe’s eight vampires formed a wall around him and, together, sprinted from the clearing. Maybe I imagined it, but Jack seemed to move slower than the others. Abasi’s guards started after them, but he called them back.

“Entertainment?” Gage leaned closer to me. “What was he talking about?”

Before I could answer, James said, “We should leave now. Whatever Philippe has planned, it will not be good.” I nodded and we began edging into the tree line.

A multi-language furor arose among the Elders and I looked back to see Mehisti and Siobhan joining them. Kore stood a few feet away, smiling, and I had the distinct impression she was enjoying the uproar. After doing a headcount, I realized that Amenenhep was gone. And, somehow, that was the most disturbing thing of all.

Suddenly, James’s head snapped up and the feel of his awareness expanding into the night brushed against my skin.

“What is it?” I whispered.

His eyes cleared. “We need to leave. Now!”

I caught the scent then—humans, a lot of them. The wind was shifting and we moved deeper into the trees’ cover, unsure where the danger was. Gage’s nostrils flared and he inhaled, moaning in his throat.

“Control yourself,” I hissed. “Hold your breath!”

He shook his head to clear it and there was anguish in his eyes.

Movement along the ridge above us drew my attention and I looked up—at least thirty armed humans were getting into formation to fire down into the clearing. With its bowl-shape, it was the perfect killing field.

“Slayers!” James growled, his fury roiling through my mind.

We had been betrayed.

A familiar figure ran to the cliff edge to point down into the mass of vampires. At her signal, the other humans raised rifles to shoulders and took aim.

“Lilith!” I snarled.

The shooting started and the first vampire fell, his heart blown out. Abasi bellowed as his guards fell to the next shots. Leo ran toward us, but was lost in the pandemonium as vampires fled in every direction. The slayers would not have been able to see anything to shoot if the vampires could move at speed. But, with almost two hundred in the small area, it was impossible to get clearance to run and the slayers picked off dozens more.

Over the rifle fire came a human scream—I looked back at the ridgeline and everything was so chaotic, the scene hit me like snapshots. I saw several vampires race up the cliff face and attack. Saw Lilith bent backward with a vampire’s head buried in her throat. Saw the feeding male shot point-blank by another slayer. And saw the wounded immortal fall over the cliff’s edge, taking Lilith with him. They crashed together onto the rough ground even as other humans were hurled from the top by marauding vampires. The broken bodies created havoc as the spilled blood threw several younger immortals into a frenzy, making them easy targets for the sharpshooters above.

I held my breath, but Gage again caught the delicious scent and swayed. Gripping his hand tight, I pulled with my considerable strength and half-dragged him further into the safety of the trees. James hesitated a moment longer, looking for Leo, then spun toward us and roared, “Run!”

I wheeled with James, keeping a hard grip on Gage’s hand and towing him along. Once we were clear of the scent of fresh blood, he refocused and I was able to release him so we could run more easily. Within two strides, we were at full speed.

“Did you see Leo?” I asked James as we plunged through the woods, the rough terrain doing nothing to slow us.

“No.” I heard and felt his worry.

A shadow rose in front of us and my instincts locked on—
human.
With us at full speed, there was no way the slayer even knew we were there; his timing and location were just colossally bad. For
him
. Without breaking stride, I leaped feet-first, and felt the slayer crumple as if he’d been hit by a semi. A split-second’s thought and I stopped, spinning back to the dead human.

James was by my side, dancing with impatience. “Evie, what are you doing?”

Gage kept his distance from the body as he waited, keening with a mix of hunger and fear.

“A moment…” I muttered, following the scent of steel and gun oil. Buried in the thick undergrowth, I found the rifle where the slayer dropped it, and slung its strap over my shoulder. Leaping into a full run, James and I rejoined Gage.

Trees blew past us as we raced all-out. The sounds of the massacre in the clearing far behind us raged on and it was impossible to tell who was winning. The parking lot was in sight when a figure detached itself from the shadows and moved to stand next to the Range Rover. James’s reaction informed me it was a vampire in the second before my own senses confirmed it. We hurtled to a stop and Gage took a few more strides before he rejoined us.

Rage radiated from James as he stalked forward slowly, deliberately. Fangs bared, his head lowered and shoulders bunched, he snarled a vicious challenge to the male blocking our path.

Jack held his hands out nonaggressively. “There isn’t time for this,” he said in his soft southern accent.

My instincts rose in sync with my mate’s and I moved to James’s side. “Get out of the way,” I growled, my words barely legible. Gage came to my side, rigid and intent on the dark-haired vampire.

“You need to hear me out,” he protested. “Philippe has been to your home. He’s set a trap there.”

James asked in a low, dangerous voice, “What kind of trap?”

“He’s made it look like a murder scene. The police are already involved. If you go back, things would be very complicated and you’d risk public exposure. Your houseman is dead.”

The breath exploded from me. “Tom!”

James leaped on Jack, lifted him and threw him into a huge tree that split from the impact, the
crack
of disintegrating wood like an explosion.

Jack slowly climbed to his feet and stood, swaying gently. “I’m not going to fight y’all,” he rasped, his drawl more pronounced. “There’s no time.”

“We saw you with that psychopath, Philippe!” Gage’s voice was harsh and trembling as his own instincts raged. “Why should we trust you?”

“I have my own reasons. You can listen or not, your choice. But I’m telling you not to return to the city.”

I felt the effort expended as James wrestled with his anger and urge to attack. “What does Philippe know of us?”

“Not much,” Jack answered, relaxing his stance a little at the calmer tone. “He’s been inside your house, but he couldn’t get into your computer, couldn’t hack the passwords.”

“I haven’t seen him in over a hundred and fifty years. Why does he suddenly want me dead?”

“Philippe has a new buddy. The Dark Fae King, if you can believe it. They’ve decided to knock off any vampires who are likely to oppose Philippe’s plans. Your name was at the top of the list.”

I hissed, “Where is Philippe now? And his fae friend?”